The present invention relates to a sheet handling apparatus, in which, for example, a sheet is arranged in position during conveyance.
Conventionally, there are provided apparatuses, in which paper notes are accumulated, paid out, or the like, and which are incorporated into an apparatus for handling of paper notes, such as ATM.
Plural kinds exist in paper notes and sizes differ according to the kinds. Accordingly, in case of handling various kinds of paper notes, positional adjustment in a conveyance path is needed to store paper notes in cassettes when it is tried to hold paper notes in cassettes suited to sizes thereof by kinds.
As measures to perform such positional adjustment, there has been proposed a medium handling apparatus comprising a straight conveyance roller provided centrally in a conveyance path and skew conveyance rollers provided on both sides of the straight conveyance roller to put paper notes (medium) to the center (see JP-A-9-194081).
With the medium handling apparatus, paper notes are conveyed by the straight conveyance roller arranged in the center and when paper notes are to be put to the center, the straight conveyance roller is retreated and the skew conveyance roller (for example, one on the right) is energized to put paper notes to the center.
Since at the time of putting to the center, paper notes are momentarily released freely without contacting with any one of the straight conveyance roller and the skew conveyance rollers, however, there is caused a problem that handling is impaired in stability.
Assuming a construction, in which the skew conveyance rollers are energized and then the straight conveyance roller is retreated, there is caused a problem that paper notes are deformed by the both rollers, which are different in direction of rotation, to cause paper jam.
Further, since the skew conveyance roller is energized midway paper notes being conveyed to cause shift, there is caused a problem that a distance, in which shift is made effective, is shorter than a length of paper notes in a direction of conveyance and thus shift is small in magnitude.
Also, since one skew conveyance roller is used at the time of putting to the center, skew is in some cases generated at the time of putting to the center. That is, while the skew conveyance roller has an appropriate width, skew is in some cases generated because a biasing force at one end of the roller becomes strong according to machining accuracy when paper notes are biased, and pressure is concentrated on one point. Further, there are problems that obstruction occurs upon storing since a structure to monitor a sheet condition as to whether shift correction has been correctly executed or not after shift correction is executed is not provided and that in a circulation type automatic teller machine having a function to pay out again a paper note which has been stored once, obstruction in pay out occurs since shift correction has not been performed correctly.
Also, another related art for positional adjustment proposes the provision of an oscillating conveyance belt (see JP-A-5-12529). Since the oscillating conveyance belt is large in mass, however, it is difficult to feedback control a shift mechanism while measuring movements of paper notes during correction of shift to provide for an accurate shift.